The Cecil Whig., 1887-12-03

as common labOrer. 10 some one
who taunted him with having been
a hostler, he replied: eyes, and |
was the best hostler in Des Moincs."
Few careers have been more meri-
torious than that ofthe present mayor
OF Chicago. Mr.. Roche worked for
years as a machinist in New York,
and was a constant attendant at the
evening classes at the Cooper Union
the noble institution of another
lllustrious self-made man.
Mayor Hewitt OF New York was
poor country boy near Haverstraw,
and taught school to pay his way
through college.
Professor Alexander G.. Bell, of
telephone fame, was a teacher of deaf
mutes, and his inventive genius was
sorely hampered by poverty.
Rufus T. Bush of New York was a
poor school teacherin Michigan. He
is now connected with the Standard
Oil Company, and possesses a for
tune and the beautiful yacht Coro-
net.
President Bostwick of the New
York and New England, who is con-
nected with the same corporation,
and is a millionaire ten times over,
was a penniless boy in Sullivan
county, New York. He educated
himself, and was a bookkeeper in
Cleveland when he first became as
sociated with the Rockefellers and
H. M. Flagler in the operations
which have made these self-made
men SO enormou: ly wealthy.
Mr.. Joseph w. Drexel of New
York commenced life on the modest
salary of one dollar week. Orestes
Cleveland, Mayor of Jersey City, be-
gan at the same wages, and alter
wards owned a factory employing
four hundred hands. Another mayor
DR.. Ames of Minneapolis, who
came near being elecled Governor
of the State of Minnesota-supported
himself while studying medicine by
writing for the papers. Two other
prominent and respected Minnesota
politicians are P. H. Kelly, who was
once a drayman, and Michael Doran,
who began life as a mule driver in
the new West.
Thurlow Weed, the New York
journalist and statesman, was at one
time a canal boat driver.
Governor Lounsbury of Connecti-
cut, who is now bank preside MT and
owenr of shoe factories, has made
all his own money; his first employ
ment was as a Methodist preacher
The late w. w. Corcoran, the
wealthy Washington banker, who
gave millions in charities, was once
a clerk in his fathers shoe store.
Senator Wilson of Massachusetts was
a shoemaker. Erastus Corning, as a
boy, sought employment in a store
in Albany, the city where he after
wards rose to fame. "What can you
do, my little boy?" he was asked.
81 can do what | am bid," he an
swered, and this perhaps was one Of
the secrets of his success.
Ex-Governor Palmer, of Illinois,
was country blacksmith; Stephen
A. Douglas. the well known senator
from the same State, was cabinet
maker, as was Ex-Governor Stone
of Iowa.
Gerard B. Allen, the principal
owner of the Missouri Republican,
and one of the wealthiest citizens of
St. Louis, was moulder by trade,
and started on the way to fortune
by opening small foundry for HIM
self.
Congressman French of Connecti-
cut was another poor young me-
chanic. He was riding on railroad
car one day, and the jolting Of the
wheels set hin, not to grumbling,
but to devising an improved spring
He succeeded, and his invention was
universally adopted.
George Westinghouse, of Pitts
burg, is another who enriched him.
self and benefited mankind by his
inventions. Though not in absolute
poverty, he was in very moderate
circumstances when he developed
the first of his new ideas. He had
noticed the inefticiency of the hand
brakes then used on all railroads,
and set to work to devise something
better. The result was the WeSting-
house air brake, in the manufacture
of which fifteen hundred hands are
employed at Pittsburg, besides the
branch works in England, France,
and Germany.
Many another invention has en-
riched its author; not merely the
great and famous discoveries of the
pioneers in new fields or science,
but improvements in methods of de-
vices which may at first sight seem
trihing and insignificant. There are
two especially fruitful fields of invcn-
ton, which much yet remains to be
accomplished. These are the per-
tection Of the ordinary appliances of
every day lie, and the utilization of
the enormous amount of material
which is constantly being wasted all
around us.
For instance, wooden butter dishes
were invented by clerk, once poor,
but now no longer so; and paper